Ephemeral group chat

ABSTRACT

Methods, devices, systems, and computer readable media with instructions for group text communications between multiple devices, along with communication of associated data and automatic deletion of communications, are described. One embodiment involves generating a first ephemeral group chat, receiving a first ephemeral chat message, associated with one or more deletion triggers, and transmitting the first ephemeral message; and receiving, from at least the second client device, chat monitoring information comprising first deletion trigger information. In various embodiments, coordinated presentation and deletion of ephemeral chat messages are managed in a variety of ways.

CLAIM OF PRIORITY

This Application claims the benefit of priority of U.S. ProvisionalApplication Ser. No. 62/157,780, filed May 6, 2015, which is herebyincorporated by reference in its entirety.

TECHNICAL FIELD

Embodiments pertain to group text communications between multipledevices, along with communication of associated data and automaticdeletion of communications for improved data security.

BACKGROUND

Online chat refers to communications via a network with real-timetransmission of text messages between users. These messages aregenerally short in order to enable participants to respond quickly,thereby creating the feeling of a conversation. Such communications areoften between two users, and structured as point-to-pointcommunications, but can also be multicast or structured as groupcommunications. In many chat systems, data is not stored securely.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Various ones of the appended drawings merely illustrate exampleembodiments of the present disclosure and should not be considered aslimiting its scope.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a networked system, according tosome example embodiments.

FIGS. 2A-C illustrate aspects of ephemeral group chat, in accordancewith certain example embodiments.

FIG. 3 illustrates aspects of ephemeral group chat and an associateduser interface, in accordance with certain example embodiments.

FIG. 4 illustrates aspects of ephemeral group chat, in accordance withcertain example embodiments.

FIGS. 5A-J illustrate aspects of ephemeral group chat and an associateduser interface, in accordance with certain example embodiments.

FIG. 6 illustrates communications between a server computer and clientdevices associated with user accounts that are part of an ephemeralgroup chat, in accordance with certain example embodiments.

FIG. 7 illustrates a method for implementing ephemeral group chat, inaccordance with some example embodiments.

FIG. 8 illustrates aspects of a communication system which implementsephemeral group chat, in accordance with some embodiments.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a softwarearchitecture that may be installed on a machine, according to someexample embodiments.

FIG. 10 illustrates aspects of an example client device that may be usedwith ephemeral group chat, according to some example embodiments.

FIG. 11 illustrates a diagrammatic representation of a machine in theform of a computer system within which a set of instructions may beexecuted for causing the machine to perform any one or more of themethodologies discussed herein, according to an example embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Embodiments described herein pertain to group text communicationsbetween multiple devices, additional communications in support of textcommunications, and automatic deletion of messages (e.g., ephemeralmessages) in a group chat context. Some embodiments may operate in thecontext of a social networking environment where client devices may notonly chat (e.g., send text messages) but may also send ephemeralphotographs and video clips to groups of friends. In this context, afriend is a user account associated with one or more devices that hasbeen associated with another account, either by a friend request andresponse, or some other such association method.

Example embodiments allow users to create a group chat with theirfriends up to a threshold number of friends in a single group chatscreen. Users are able to create groups from an overall feed userinterface (UI), such as a list of current groups and users that haveinitiated messages to a user's devices or a “send to” UI (e.g., a UI forinitiating a message or content communication to one or more otherusers.) Additionally, “presence” and “receipt” information allow usersto know when their friends are present in the chat and interacting withuser messages via an interface presented at a user's device. Suchpresence and receipt information is, in some embodiments, used todetermine when an ephemeral chat message should be deleted for allmembers of a group chat. In other embodiments, other information isshared by users to determine when an ephemeral chat message should bedeleted for all users.

In one embodiment, a threshold number of user accounts can be added to agroup chat, (e.g., eight users, ten users, etc.) Users can leave or beadded to the group, either by an action of a user alone or by aninvitation by an initial user and a response from a joining user. Inother embodiments, votes from various threshold numbers of users withina group may be used to add or remove group members. A particular set ofusers may have more than one group chat active for that set of users atone time (e.g., group chats can be copied or renamed). In other words,an overview interface showing a cell for each active group chat may havedifferent cells for a first group and a second separate group, where themembers of the first and second group are identical. In certainembodiments, the second group may be generated by copying the firstgroup and giving the second group a new name to distinguish it from thefirst group.

In some embodiments, once everyone in a group has viewed a particularmessage that is part of a group chat for a threshold amount of time, themessage is cleared for all group members. In various embodiments, avariety of deletion triggers other than all group members meeting athreshold viewing time may be used, as described in more detail below.In some embodiments, multiple deletion triggers are used (e.g., twotriggers with an overall time since the message was sent plus athreshold number of group members viewing the message for a thresholdviewing time.) In other embodiments, multiple deletion triggers arepossible for a single message, with the message deleted when a triggercondition for any of the multiple possible deletion triggers is met.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a networked system 100 accordingto some example embodiments. System 100 includes client devices 110,120, and 130 as well as server system 150, and network 140. Network 140is used to convey communications between client devices 110, 120, 130and the server system 150. Client devices 110, 130 and 120 may be anysmartphone, tablet, phablet, laptop computer, network-enabled camera, orany other such network enabled device. Client devices 110, 120, 130 mayinclude a keyboard or touchscreen for entering text information, as wellas a camera device for capturing additional content that may be part ofa supplemental (e.g., non-text) communication between users or membersof a group. Client devices 110, 120, 130 are connected to server system150 via network 140. The network 140 may include any combination ofwired and wireless connections. This may include cellular accessnetworks, access point interfaces to the internet, or any other suchnetworks 140 or network elements. For example, client device 110 mayinterface with network 140 using a Long Term Evolution (LTE) cellularnetwork to communicate with server system 150, while client device 120may use a Wi-Fi access point to interface with network 140 andcommunicate with server system 150. Server system 150 may be one or morecomputing devices as part of a service or network computing system. Incertain embodiments, particularly embodiments with large numbers ofclient devices 110, 120, 130 interfacing with a server system 150 fromwidely different locations all over the globe, server system 150 may bea distributed network 140 of server computers that are similarly widelydistributed, and which communicate with each other via network 140. Insome embodiments, client devices 110, 120, 130, as well as any elementsof server system 150 and network 140, may be implemented using elementsof software architecture 902 or machine 1100 described in FIGS. 9 and11.

Networked system 100 then may be used in communication of messagesbetween client devices 110, 120, 130. In the embodiment discussed below,client devices 110, 120, and 130 are each associated with a differentuser account, and each of these user accounts for devices 110, 120, and130 have joined a group. The devices send messages to the group vianetwork 140 and system 150, and receive messages from the group via thesame route. As shown in FIG. 1, client device 110 communicates contentmessage 112 to server system 150, and client device 110 receivesmessages 114 and 116 from devices 120 and 130. Similarly, device 120sends message 114 and device 130 sends message 116. All of the devicesare associated with a single group, and the messages 112, 114, and 116are sent as group chat, so server system 150 directs each message sothat every member of the group has a copy of each message.

Each device then includes a feed interface that may be part of anapplication operating on the respective client device. When chatmessages are received, a notifier appears in the feed, and a group chat,individual chat, or other message may be accessed. A selection withinthe feed may navigate a user to a chat view.

FIGS. 2A-C illustrate aspects of ephemeral group chat, in accordancewith certain example embodiments. FIGS. 2A-C illustrate aspects of achat view 202 that may be used as part of a messaging client applicationsuch as messaging client application 804 operating on a client device.This includes client devices such as example client devices 110, 120,and 130 of FIG. 1, and mobile device 1000 of FIG. 10, where a chat view202 may be presented with display area 1002. Chat view 202A of FIG. 2Aincludes a header 210 with a chat title next to a top right arrow 212.In some embodiments, interacting with a UI displayed by chat view 202 bytapping the top right arrow 212 button of the interface navigates backto the feed described briefly above. The example embodiment of FIG. 2Awith the title in the header 210 shows the first names or identifiers ofthe user accounts in the group chat. Names may be associated with useraccounts by the user account controller, or by an individual user (e.g.,by assigning names as aliases in a friend list.) In other embodiments,other details may be used in a header 210 of a group chat view 202. Insome embodiments, if there are too many names, the first few names areshown followed by an ellipsis. The ordering of the names may be dictatedby the order of joining the group, or in any other order allowed by thesystem. In some embodiments, tapping a touch target of the userinterface (UI) associated with the header 210 reveals a UI dropdown,which is discussed in more detail below with respect to FIG. 3.

In chat view 202A, chat flow 214 includes two ephemeral chat messages216 and 218. Presence indicators 220 lists group members, and mayinclude indicators as to which group members are currently in a chatview 202 for the shared group chat on devices associated with useraccounts corresponding to the presented names or user account namesshown by presence indicators 220. In some embodiments, for example,colors associated with a user account may brighten or be displayed whena chat system has received a presence information from a user deviceassociated with a user account within a certain time frame indicatingthat the user is displaying or interacting with chat view 202. When thechat system has not received a presence communication within a certaintime frame, a name or account identifier of presence indicators 220 mayindicate this as well (e.g., by greying out the associated name oraccount identifier). Chat entry area 222 shows text or other content foran ephemeral chat message before the message is sent. Data entryinterface 224 is a portion of chat view 202 for entering information foran ephemeral chat message, such as the software keyboard illustrated byFIG. 2A. In other embodiments, this may be a voice-to-text interface, orany other such interface for assisting with input for an ephemeral chatmessage.

In addition to the ephemeral chat messages shown within chat flow 214,other status or presence messages may be displayed. This includesreceipt messages, presence notifications, information related todeletion triggers or criteria, or any other such information. Forexample, a chat interface may also have notifications. These chatnotifications as part of the embodiment with chat flow 214 may include:

-Typing -[display name] is typing in [group name]... -Push -“From[display name] in [group name]” -In App -“<chat icon> [group name]”-secondary text: “[display name]”

In other embodiments, other chat notifications may be used.

In some embodiments, content communications (e.g., image and videocommunications) are also presented in chat flow 214, and in some suchembodiments have associated notifications as part of a display interfacefor these content communications. Examples of such notificationsinclude:

-Push -“From [display name] in [group name]” -In App -“<icon> [groupname]” -secondary text: “[display name]”or any other such notifications in various embodiments.

In addition to these notifications for text or content communications,other notifications may be used by a system. For example, certainnotifications may be provided for users joining or leaving a group.Additionally, some embodiments may enable a user to block communicationsfrom another specific user or group of users. Notifications may beprovided when a user is initially blocked, and notifications may beprovided when communications are not received because a user haspreviously blocked a user sending a current message. Specific details ofsuch notifications may vary between different implementations and may beselectable and customizable by different users.

In addition to allowing group chat within a UI of chat view 202, certainembodiments may enable chat between only a portion of members of a groupwithin the same chat flow, as illustrated by FIGS. 2B and 2C. Thus,certain embodiments include systems and methods for a user taking partin a group chat to have a private conversation with one or more of themembers of the group without the knowledge of the rest of the group.Such embodiments include the private messages appearing independently ofthe group conversation of chat flow 214. In certain embodiments, a usercan “scroll” within the private conversation and the group conversationindependently within chat flow 214 even if they are both on the main oronly display. For example, in such embodiments, if a private chat flowwithin chat flow 214 exceeds a certain size, number of messages, ornumber of lines, a scrollable interface within chat flow 214 ispresented. If the overall chat flow 214 is similarly larger than athreshold size that fits within chat flow 214, then a user may scrollmessages within chat flow 214, and may also scroll within a sub areathat presents only a portion of the private group chat messagesrepresented by private group chat 242A.

In the embodiment illustrated by FIG. 2B, the chat messages 240 shown asbeginning at the left margins are messages shared with all of themembers of the group. During group chat, a user can select one or moremembers of the group for a private group chat 242A message, and thatprivate “whisper” message will be sent only to those selected groupmembers. The private group chat 242A message is displayed as part of thegroup message flow in chat view 202, but with an indent to show that theprivate group chat 242A message is not shared with the entire group.Such a private group chat 242A whisper message may be initiated by, forexample, touching the names of recipients in the display to add them toa whisper sub-group. In some embodiments, if messages between thesub-group exceed a certain length, then another sub-flow may be embeddedwithin chat flow 214 for the messages between members of the sub-group.The example of FIG. 2B shows a message from a user “JACK” to the wholegroup, followed by a message from user “CHAMAL” to the whole group,followed by a message from a user associated with the displayedinterface, labeled as “ME,” and sent to the whole group, followed by aprivate whisper message from the device user “ME” to group members“ADITYA” and “JACK.” As illustrated, the final message, which is aprivate whisper message, is illustrated as indented in the group messageflow, while the group messages above are shown at the left margin.

Additionally, as detailed herein, group messaging may use colorassignments for each user in a group. In certain embodiments, colors mayonly be displayed for a portion of the users. In FIG. 2B, group members“WILL” and “DONNY” have their names listed as group members, but may notbe shown with an associated color. This may be implemented so that onlyusers that have participated in a group by sending a message have theircolors displayed. This may also be implemented such that only user namesthat are currently part of the interface have a color displayed. Thismay also be implemented such that all invited group members have theirnames displayed, but only group members that have responded to aninvitation to join a group have a color associated and displayed as partof the group interface. In other embodiments, other color associationand user interface displays may be used.

FIG. 2C illustrates another example of a message flow for private groupchat 242B whisper messages within the group chat flow 214 area. Just asdescribed above with respect to FIG. 2B, the private group chat 242Bmessages are shown indented from the leftmost margin where group messageare shown. In the example of FIG. 3C, the private group chat 242Bwhisper messages are not only indented, but a title or whisper messageheader is also shown with information about recipients of the privatemessage. In some embodiments, an interface area below the most recentwhisper message allows a single tap input to begin a whisper message tothe established sub-group from a previous whisper message. Below this, a“send a chat” user interface area allows a single touch to beginentering a message to the entire group. The message chat flow 214 may bestructured to show all messages by time, but with private whispermessages and group messages interwoven in the same flow. A swipe inputup and down on the sub-group message display area may allow a user toscroll up or down to different private whisper messages to initiate aprivate whisper reply.

Additionally, in certain embodiments, an independent scroll area for theprivate whisper communications may be included. For example, in theembodiment of FIG. 2C, if a user swipes up or down in the area below the“MATT & DONNY” header and above the “TAP TO REPLY” area, the messagedisplay for the private whisper message history will scroll up and downif there are more messages than fit in the whisper display area, whilethe group messages are stationary. In other embodiments, where a groupmessage is presented below the private whisper message area, the userinterface swipe area may be in the area where text for the privatewhisper messages is presented. If multiple different private whispermessages are part of the same user interface display, these may eachhave separate whisper display areas. For such an embodiment, eachseparate area will scroll to a history of their separate independentwhisper messages if a swipe input is received at the user interface.

Thus, as described above, a user can have a combination of two or moregroup chats or private conversations open on the same screen.Embodiments with such a single screen may have multiple layers ofprivacy (e.g., a group chat with six people, a private conversation withfour of the six, and another private conversation between two of thosefour).

FIG. 3 illustrates aspects of ephemeral group chat, in accordance withcertain example embodiments, and shows an example of a user interface300. Entering this state reveals an edit icon 314 to the left of theheader 310. Tapping this icon allows the user to set the group name thatis applied to all users. If a user changes the group name displayed inheader 310, it is added to the group chat UI and text similar in styleto the date text is dropped into the chat:

“[display name] named the group [new group name]”“You named the group [new group name]”

In some embodiments, renaming the group allows for a group name of 16characters. Within the dropdown is a list of users' names (e.g., useraccount identifiers) in the group chat. In some embodiments, each username is a different group chat color. Tapping the name of a usernavigates into a chat with that user. If the user has associated symbols(e.g. emoji, friendmojis, symbol, etc.) they are displayed at the righthand portion of the corresponding cell. At the bottom of the dropdownare options to add a user to the group and to leave the group.

For adding a user to the group, various actions may be used in differentimplementations. Selecting an add user area of a UI takes a user to alist of friends that are not in the group chat. This may be acommunication and response between a client device and a server system(e.g., a friend list is transmitted from the server to the clientdevice) or may use a friend list stored in a client device. When thefriend list is displayed, a user can tap multiple names from the friendlist to add them to the group. In some embodiments, a maximum group sizemay be implemented.

A user may also use a UI to leave a group. When leaving a group, auser's saved items are unsaved (and deleted). Unviewed snaps and chatsthat a user has received are marked as read. Unviewed snaps that a userhas sent remain in the chat until they are viewed by each member of thegroup, and then the chat messages disappear from each user's clientdevice. In other words, unviewed chats that a user has sent remain inthe chat until they are viewed such that normal clearing logic appliesfor other users after a group member has left the group.

A message is initially entered at a client device and is sent to devicesassociated with each user account that is part of a group chat after auser enters a command to send the message. A server system then sendsthe messages to the appropriate client devices. The devices thenmaintain the messages and delete the messages for all users after eachuser has viewed the chat. In some embodiments, a message may be deleted(e.g., after a deletion period of time) even if it has not been viewed.A message may be considered as having been viewed when the message hasbeen presented on the screen for a certain period of time, when a userhas checked the message as viewed, or based on any other such systemcriteria associated with presentation of a message to a user of a clientdevice. If more than one client device is associated with a single useraccount, a client device displaying the message may send a message tothe server system indicating that the message was viewed, and the serversystem can send a message indicating that the message is to be deletedat the appropriate time after the message has been viewed by all membersof a group chat.

In certain embodiments, any user can save a chat message or all chatmessages in a group chat. A visual indicator may be provided on a clientdevice indicating that a user has saved one or more messages or thatanother member of a group has saved one or more messages in a groupchat. One such indicator may be a change in color of a color bar arounda user's ID in a presented UI. Another indicator may be a thickness of aline around a user's identifier (ID) in a presented user interface (UI).In certain embodiments, an overscroll input to a UI will reveal a timestamp with a colored dot of the same color for all users that have savedthe content.

In certain embodiments, if a user takes a screenshot, text similar instyle to the date text is dropped into the chat with a message “[firstname] took a screenshot of Chat!,” and “You took a screenshot of Chat!”may be presented on the display of a client device for the user thatscreenshotted the chat. Such a message may be presented for screenshotstaken during group chat as well as screenshots taken on one-to-onechats. In such embodiments, a messaging client application may send amessage with presence information to a server computer identifying thata screen capture was taken, and this information is sent to all membersof the group chat to be displayed as an update within a chat flow.Similarly, in various embodiments, such a messaging client applicationcaptures various information about a user's interactions with a userinterface and display of chat messages, and sends chat monitoringinformation to a server computer. The server computer may use thisinformation to determine when chat messages are to be deleted, and whenvarious updated and presence messages are to be displayed via screens ofdevices.

In various embodiments with a feed or flow interface as described above,messages or content that have previously been viewed by a user appearabove a fold in the UI in all devices associated with the user'saccount. When a content communication (e.g., an image or video clip) isreceived at a client device as part of a chat and is presented as partof the chat flow, the receiving user can only view the content once. Ifa receiver screenshots the content, text similar in style to the datetext is dropped into a chat of the sender, right below the content aspresented to each user in a group chat, indicating that a particularviewer has screenshotted it. This screenshot message is only visible tothe sender of the content.

In addition to a screenshot notification to a content communicationsender, a sender may additionally receive a receipt indicating that thecontent was delivered, and a receipt indicating that the content wasopened/viewed. For video clips, the notification may indicate if onlypart of the video clip was viewed. For an image with a time limit onviewing, a receipt may indicate how much of the viewing time has beenused. The content received/opened receipt and possible screenshotnotification for an individual user disappears after the user has swipedinto a chat flow from a higher level UI interface and viewed theassociated receipt.

In some embodiments, a sender sees a sent receipt in a chat flow untilall people in the group chat have viewed the sent content. The sentreceipt provides an “opened” notification when one or more otherrecipient users have viewed the content. In certain embodiments, asender can view who has seen the content by pulling right to left on atouchscreen UI to reveal a list of the content read receipts for allother users in a group. In one example implementation, such content readreceipts are indicated by a colored dot, where the color correspondswith the color of the user who has viewed the content. After all usershave viewed the content, the read receipt remains until the sender hasseen the chat view in the state where all receivers have viewed thecontent. After the sender enters the chat when the content has beenviewed by all other group members, the receipt is released.

In one example embodiment, the sender can see who has taken a screenshotvia text similar in style to the date text (e.g., “Today”) directlyunder the content receipt. For example:

“[first name] took a screenshot!”or if multiple people took a screenshot:“[first name], [first name], [first name], & [first name] took ascreenshot!”

The screenshot text is released along with a content_sent_opened icon.When a user enters or leaves a chat group, an indicator message is shownin the same style as the date headers illustrated in FIGS. 2 and 5 (e.g.“today.”) Example indicator messages include:

[first name] has leftand[first name] was added by [first name of adder].

In such an embodiment, the indicator message text follows chat readlogic for being released and removed from a chat flow and client device.

When a user leaves a chat, for example by selecting a leave chatinterface 320, the chat messages on devices associated with that useraccount are unsaved (e.g., deleted for all associated user devices whenpossible, such as after connection with the server computer afterpower-on or after running a messaging client application on a devicethat had previously received an ephemeral chat message.) In someembodiments, such a leave chat interface 320 includes additionalwarnings that chat messages will be inaccessible to the user accountafter leaving the group chat, but will be available to other users.Unviewed snaps and chats that the leaving user has received are markedas read for the purpose of any deletion triggers associated with theleaving user account. Unviewed chat messages that the user has sentremain in the chat flow of other users devices until they meet deletioncriteria, then disappear from the chat flow of all users. In someembodiments, users accounts may similarly be added to a group chat byselecting add friend interface 318.

FIG. 4 illustrates additional aspects of ephemeral group chat, inaccordance with certain example embodiments. FIG. 4 illustrates anexample UI, shown as display 400, for adding a friend to a chat group.If a user selects the add friend interface 318 in the dropdownillustrated in FIG. 3, the user is taken to a list of my friends whichhas previously been established for the user. The user can tap onmultiple names in the UI to add them to the group. This interaction isthe same as the send to page for a single content message communicationin various embodiments. After pressing “Done,” the friends selected areadded to the group. A user cannot add more friends to the group if thegroup is at its maximum size as defined by a system threshold.

In some embodiments, if a group reaches the maximum limit thresholdwhile adding friends in the Add Friend page, the checkboxes disappearand the names dim to 50% opacity. If a user unchecks one of the friendsthat have been selected, the checkboxes reappear

When a user joins a chat, for example by selecting an add friendinterface 318, different embodiments may manage the availability of chatmessages to the joining user in different ways. In some embodiments,chat messages that have not been deleted and that were sent to allprevious group members are made available to the joining user, andassociated deletion triggers are modified to add the joining user to anydeletion criteria associated with all group members (e.g., deletionafter all group members view the chat message for 10 seconds.) In someembodiments, however, the newly added member does not receive anypreviously sent chat messages. In such embodiments, the previously sentchat messages may maintain the same presentation within the chat flow ofprevious members, or the previous messages may be presented within asub-chat interface such as the one described above (e.g. private groupchat 242), with subsequent messages to the entire group presented in themain chat flow to all group members.

In certain embodiments, a system selects a user identifier for use inchat messages in different ways. In some embodiments, the system uses afirst name of the user as identified from registration information. Thefirst name is assumed to be the string that exists before the firstspace in a name field of account name data. In other embodiments, thefirst name may be derived or discovered in other ways. If there aremultiple users in a group that have the same first name, the system willuse the last name's (e.g., string that exists after the last space)initial, and will use additional characters until a unique identifierfor the group is presented. In some embodiments, if there are conflictswith using the last initial, the system can use the whole last name, anda unique character or number may be generated by the system ifadditional conflicts remain.

If one name is Bob Smith and there is a Bob Jones in a group, Bob Smithwill see Bob Jones as Bob and Bob Jones will see Bob Smith as Bob.Everyone else in the group will see Bob S. and Bob J.

In addition to the management of ephemeral messages, in someembodiments, a system interface may also indicate presence information,which provides group members information about which users are currentlyor have recently (e.g., within a threshold time period) accessed thegroup chat flow or messages from a group chat. This presence informationis provided by a visual affordance to indicate who is present in thegroup with their first names in an unfilled bubble of their group chatcolor. These bubbles appear, starting on the left side above the chatinput bar, and appear below and on the right side of the previousmessage as users enter the group.

As mentioned above, each user will have a distinct color assigned tothem as they enter a group chat. These colors may be automaticallyassigned as part of a default system setting. In some embodiments, thecolors may be adjusted based on user preferences or different selectablecolor templates.

In one embodiment, a color scheme may be implemented as follows:

A user's own color is red

The other colors are given out by order of joining the group

1—group chat red2—light blue3—light green4—orange5—pink6—dark blue7—dark green8—purple

If users were added at the same time, the tie-breaker is alphabeticalorder by display name. Color are not updated if people leave the group,but are maintained once assigned for the duration of a group'sexistence. When a user leaves, their color is assigned to a joining userin the order in which the user left. In other embodiments, colors may beassigned or reassigned in other ways.

An overall feed is a high-level organization of messages incoming at aclient device. In one embodiment, each group chat has a cell in a feed.Selecting a cell within the flow will, in some embodiments, present achat view such as chat view 202 for a particular group. In someembodiments of a flow, individual content messages and one-on-one chatsmay also have cells in the feed. In a group chat cell within ahigh-level flow, secondary text may be shown. In some embodiments,secondary text for group chats is shown within the flow if there areunread content communications or chats for a particular group. Thesecondary text shows the names of the people in the group who arecontributing to the unread content. The names will be shown in order ofwhen the content was sent, with the most recently sent shown last.Tapping or touching a cell in a UI may show a time stamp for messages.

If a group has not had any recent activity in a threshold amount of time(e.g., 1 month, 31 days, 60 days, etc.), then the group falls off thehigh-level feed. Groups with no saved content (e.g., groups for whichall messages have met deletion criteria for deletion triggers associatedwith the messages communicated to the group) will be deleted from thesystem. If a group has saved content (e.g., content that has not met anassociated deletion criteria), it will “fall off the feed,” but beaccessible by scrolling to the bottom of the feed and tapping a “showolder conversations” UI space. Groups with saved content will also beaccessible by search, along with any other searchable text messages suchas one-on-one chats.

In some embodiments, search behavior acts as follows. A user can searchfor a group. If a user types “Bobby” into a search field, the user willsee any one-on-one chats with users having the ID “Bobby” as well as anygroups the user is in with other users with the ID “Bobby.” Multipleusers with last names or last initials may be shown if multiple exist(e.g. Bobby S., Bobby Jones, Bobby Johnson.)

A search matches the display name or the members (display name orusername) in that group. If a group has fallen off the feed, a user cansee it appear in search results by tapping the “show olderconversations” UI interface. If a user searches by a group name that hassince been changed, that group will still be surfaced in search resultswith the new name showing. If a group name has not been changed in thethreshold time, the old group name will be removed from the system andwill no longer be searchable.

A chat group may be generated in a number of different ways. In ahigh-level feed interface showing communication cells for existinggroups, content messages, and one-on-one chats, a user can tap the “newchat” icon in the upper right corner of the feed. The user can selectmultiple people in the new chat view to be in a group. When a user hasselected multiple user IDs to add to a group, the user can tap theheader area of the UI to set the name of the group. The default groupname will be the first names of the users, separated by commas. Thegroup is only created after the originating user sends a text message ora content communication. If there is already a group with these members,the user will also see the existing group above the selected names

FIGS. 5A-J illustrate aspects of ephemeral group chat including anexample implementation of a send-to interface 500, according to oneexample embodiment. Send-to interface 500 includes a plurality of views,shown as views 502-512. Such a send-to interface 500 may be used to senda message to any number of other user accounts within a communicationsystem. When a user has selected multiple other user accounts asrecipients for the message within send-to interface 500, the user sees acreate group interface 592 appear that allows the user to create a groupof the selected other users, and makes a chat flow 594 available for thegroup. Views 502, 504, 506, 508, and 510 illustrate views of send-tointerface 500 for selecting individuals for a group chat. View 510 showsa view with two users selected, one via a selection box, and one by asearch input. In some embodiments, when a user selects a create groupinterface 592, the user is taken to chat flow 594 and the group isautomatically created as shown by view 512. In some embodiments, whenthe user taps the create group interface 592, the user is taken to aconfirmation page with the names selected, such as the confirmation pageof view 518. On the confirmation page, the user can deselect names andname the group. The user can hit a confirmation button above thekeyboard to commit the changes and generate the group if it does notexist. If there are existing group chat threads in which this same setof users exist, the user sees that group in the confirmation pagedirectly above the selected group. If the user taps the preexistinggroup, the user is taken back to the send-to page with that groupselected. In some embodiments, the new group is not created from thisflow unless the user sends a content communication or text message tothe new group.

In some embodiments, as illustrated in FIG. 5J, the user can selectother groups and users from the send-to interface 500 as well so that asingle content communication may be sent to multiple groups. View 520 ofFIG. 5J shows a list of groups 598 as well as user accounts 596. As partof send-to interface 500, a user may select multiple groups to send amessage to. If different groups have different ephemeral triggers, themessage may be deleted independent from different groups based on theparticular deletion triggers and criteria for the particular group.

In some embodiments, if a user has created a group with users selected,the user is not prevented from selecting those users again to send thecontent communication to them individually or create another group withthem. If a user has already created a group, accessing the send-tointerface 500 and selecting two or more users again will cause thecreate group interface button to show up again. Tapping the create groupbutton will create a new group for the users selected. If a userattempts to create a new group with the same users that the user justused to create a new group, an additional group is not created, but theuser is directed to the previously created group.

In some embodiments, a user may additionally search for another user. Ifthe user searches for names in the send-to page, groups containing thosenames will appear below the names of the matching users under a “Groups”header. Such embodiments may generate views with lists of individualusers and groups, including any views such as views 520, 502-510, and514-516.

FIG. 6 illustrates communications between a server computer and clientdevices associated with user accounts that are part of an ephemeralgroup chat, in accordance with certain example embodiments. FIG. 6 showsclient devices 610, 620, and 630 communicating with each other viaserver system 650, and interacting with server system 650 to implementephemeral group chat.

In the embodiment of FIG. 6, communications 654 between client device610 and server system 650 enable generation of an association between atleast three user accounts (e.g., a group) as part of an ephemeral groupchat. First client device 610 may receive user inputs selecting the useraccounts, or identifiers associated with the user accounts, in operation652 and may communicate this list to server system 650. Sever system 650processes the selection from first client device 610 and generates theassociation as an ephemeral group chat. In some embodiments,communications 654 include a first ephemeral chat message that isreceived at server system 650 before the association between accounts isstored at server system 650 in operation 656.

The first ephemeral chat message is associated with one or more deletiontriggers. These deletion triggers may, in some embodiments be selectedby preferences provided by first client device 610 in operation 652. Insome embodiments, the deletion trigger is selected by a system operatoras part of a fixed implementation of the communication system. In otherembodiments, combinations of default deletion triggers and userselectable options for deletion triggers are used.

In some embodiments, a deletion trigger is based on each user accountbeing associated with or tracking the display of the first ephemeralmessage for a threshold amount of time on a device associated with acorresponding account. In the embodiment of FIG. 6, this would involvethe third client device 630 and the second client device 620 eachindependently verifying display of the first ephemeral message for athreshold amount of time to meet the deletion trigger. This is describedbelow with respect to operations 666 and 668.

In other embodiments, a deletion trigger comprises display of the firstephemeral chat message for a threshold amount of time on any devicecorresponding to each user account. In still further embodiments, adeletion trigger comprises a threshold time since transmission of thefirst ephemeral message from the server system 650. In still furtherembodiments, a deletion trigger comprises receipt of deletion messagesfrom a threshold number of devices associated with the at least threeuser accounts, wherein the deletion messages are received in response tomessage delete inputs received at corresponding user interfaces ofdevices associated with the at least three user accounts. In stillfurther embodiments, a deletion trigger comprises receipt by the serversystem of chat monitoring information indicating that at least a portionof the client devices associated with the group chat have viewed thechat message for a threshold amount of time, and that a threshold timesince the message was sent has also passed. In further embodiments,additional deletion triggers or combinations of deletion triggersdescribed herein may be used. In some embodiments, a deletion triggermay be dependent upon a subsequent chat message, such that a messagethat receives a response within a certain time may have a triggermodified, or may be associated with a different trigger than a messagethat does not receive a response within a threshold time.

After the association between accounts occurs, and a first ephemeralmessage is received at server system 650, then in operation 658, theserver system manages communication of the first ephemeral chat messageto client devices 620 and 630 in ephemeral chat communications 660A and660B, which include copies of the first ephemeral chat message. Secondclient device 620 and third client device 630 are identified by theirassociation with corresponding user accounts that where identified bycommunication 654 and operations 652 and/or 656.

After second client device 620 processes the first ephemeral message inoperation 662, then the second client device 620 monitors activityassociated with the group chat and the first ephemeral message inoperation 666, and sends chat monitoring information in communications667, which may be a single communication or repeated communications overtime. At least a portion of this information comprises informationassociated with the deletion trigger.

Similarly, third client device 630 processes the first ephemeral messagein operation 664, then activity associated with the group chat and thefirst ephemeral message in operation 668, and may send chat monitoringinformation in communications 669, which may be a single communicationor repeated communications over time. In some embodiments, whereinformation from all user accounts is not needed for a deletion trigger,only one device may send deletion trigger information to the serversystem 650.

In operation 670, server system 650 (e.g., a networked server computersystem) processes the chat monitoring information received from devicesassociated with user accounts from the group chat (e.g., accounts anddevices associated by operation 656.) This process may monitor anynumber of chat monitoring communications from devices, until deletiontrigger information is received that is used to identify that deletioncriteria or a deletion trigger status has been met for the firstephemeral chat message. When the deletion trigger information identifiesthat the deletion trigger has been activated, then in operation 672, theserver system 650 initiates communications to devices in the chat groupimplementing the deletion. For second client device 620 and third clientdevice 630, communications 675 and 677 are commands to delete the dataassociated with the first ephemeral chat message, including anyassociated content, in operation 676 and 678. For first client device610 that sent the first ephemeral chat message, communication 673 may bea command to delete the first ephemeral chat message, or may be a statuscommunication indicating that the deletion trigger has been met or thatdeletion has been successfully reported from some or all devicesassociated with the ephemeral group chat. Operation 674 receives andtakes any appropriate action at first client device 610 in response tocommunication 673.

Thus, as described herein, some embodiments relate to technical problemsof data privacy, security, and data clean up. Some embodiments may beconsidered solutions to a technical problem associated with a right fordata to be removed or forgotten from networking systems or socialnetworks. Limited technical solutions including particular deletiontriggers and communication signaling to synchronize deletion of data andto notify and confirm to sending and/or receiving devices when data isremoved from the system are also contemplated as technical solutions tothe above problems in various embodiments.

In various embodiments, any number of client devices that are part of agroup chat association may send and receive ephemeral chat messages,such that operations such as that described in FIG. 6 may be occurringsimultaneously for chat messages sent by multiple devices and receivedby the other devices. For example, second client device 620 may send twomessages to the entire group, and one message as a private whispermessage within the group flow to the first client device 610. Thirdclient device 630 may send a message to all group members. First clientdevice may respond to the private whisper message from the second clientdevice. Each of these messages may be associated with separate deletiontriggers and deleting timing from the deletion triggers, with the timingbased at least in part of timestamps associated with the messages.

FIG. 7 illustrates a method for implementing ephemeral group chat, inaccordance with some example embodiments. Method 700 is performed by aserver computer or server system, such as any server computer or serversystem described herein including server system 150 or server system650, which may be implemented using any machine described herein. Insome embodiments, method 700 is implemented as instructions on acomputer readable medium that, when executed by one or more processorsof a machine, cause the machine to perform method 700.

Method 700 begins with operation 710 involving generating, at a servercomputer of a social network communication system, an associationbetween at least three user accounts as part of a first ephemeral groupchat. This may include communications with one or more client devices,such as communication 654 of FIG. 6. In related embodiments,corresponding operations at a client device may operate to provide alist of user accounts.

Operation 720 then involves receiving, from a first client deviceassociated with a first user account of the at least three useraccounts, a first ephemeral chat message associated with one or moredeletion triggers. In various embodiments, this may be the same deviceor a different device than the device that provides information togenerate the group chat associations.

The server computer then transmits the first ephemeral message, as partof operation 730, to a second client device associated with a seconduser account of the at least three user accounts and to a third clientdevice associated with a third user account of the at least three useraccounts.

After the ephemeral message is sent, the server computer beginsreceiving chat monitoring information comprising first deletion triggerinformation in operation 740. The chat monitoring information mayinclude status and presence information which is used to generatecommunications to devices associated with the ephemeral group chat. Atsome point in the monitoring of the chat monitoring information from theclient devices performed at the server computer, the server receivesdeletion trigger information. In the optional embodiment of operation750, the server computer receives deletion trigger information from eachuser account. In some embodiments, this includes information frommultiple devices associated with a single account. This occurs when afirst device for an account accesses the ephemeral message, and then theephemeral message is also accessed on a second account. For deletiontriggers based on viewing time, non-simultaneous display at multipledevices associated with a single account is used to determine whether adeletion trigger is met. In other embodiments, each device's monitordisplays time separately, and the portion of the deletion trigger forthat account is only met when one device meets the deletion threshold.

In operation 760, the server computer verifies that all portions of adeletion trigger (e.g., for a deletion trigger with criteria to be metby multiple devices from different user accounts) are met. Followingthis verification, the server computer sends a deletion command inoperation 770 for the associated ephemeral chat message, or otherwisemanages interactions with client devices to verify that the ephemeralmessage is deleted as expected. In some embodiments, this furtherincludes tracking screen capture of content from the ephemeral chatmessage and communicating to the sending user account or all useraccounts that a non-ephemeral copy of content was generated.

Method 700 describes one particular method for implementing ephemeralgroup chat. It will be understood that additional embodiments arepossible using similar operations with intervening steps or operationsordered in different ways. Similarly, corresponding operations performedby client devices are described throughout, and various embodimentsperformed by client devices complementing methods performed by a servercomputer such as method 700 are considered as embodiments.

FIG. 8 illustrates aspects of a communication system which implementsephemeral group chat, in accordance with some embodiments. FIG. 8 is ablock diagram showing an example messaging system 800 for exchangingdata (e.g., messages and associated content) over a network. Themessaging system 800 includes multiple client devices 802, each of whichhosts a number of applications including a messaging client application804. Each messaging client application 804 is communicatively coupled toother instances of the messaging client application 804 and a messagingserver system 808 via a network 806 (e.g., the Internet).

Accordingly, each messaging client application 804 is able tocommunicate and exchange data with another messaging client application804 and with the messaging server system 808 via the network 806. Thedata exchanged between messaging client applications 804, and between amessaging client application 804 and the messaging server system 808,includes functions (e.g., commands to invoke functions) as well aspayload data (e.g., text, audio, video or other multimedia data).

The messaging server system 808 provides server-side functionality viathe network 806 to a particular messaging client application 804. Whilecertain functions of the messaging system 800 are described herein asbeing performed by either a messaging client application 804 or by themessaging server system 808, it will be appreciated that the location ofcertain functionality either within the messaging client application 804or the messaging server system 808 is a design choice. For example, itmay be technically preferable to initially deploy certain technology andfunctionality within the messaging server system 808, but to latermigrate this technology and functionality to the messaging clientapplication 804 where a client device 802 has a sufficient processingcapacity.

The messaging server system 808 supports various services and operationsthat are provided to the messaging client application 804. Suchoperations include transmitting data to, receiving data from, andprocessing data generated by the messaging client application 804. Thisdata may include message content, client device information, geolocationinformation, media annotation and overlays, message content persistenceconditions, social network information, and live event information, asexamples. Data exchanges within the messaging system 800 are invoked andcontrolled through functions available via Uls of the messaging clientapplication 804.

Turning now specifically to the messaging server system 808, anApplication Program Interface (API) server 810 is coupled to, andprovides a programmatic interface to, an application server 812. Theapplication server 812 is communicatively coupled to a database server818, which facilitates access to a database 820 in which is stored dataassociated with messages processed by the application server 812.

Dealing specifically with the API server 810, this server receives andtransmits message data (e.g., commands and message payloads) between theclient device 802 and the application server 812. Specifically, the APIserver 810 provides a set of interfaces (e.g., routines and protocols)that can be called or queried by the messaging client application 804 inorder to invoke functionality of the application server 812. The APIserver 810 exposes various functions supported by the application server812, including account registration, login functionality, the sending ofmessages, via the application server 812, from a particular messagingclient application 804 to another messaging client application 804′ thesending of media files (e.g., images or video) from a messaging clientapplication 804 to a messaging server application 814; and, for possibleaccess by another messaging client application 804, the setting of acollection of media data (e.g., story), the retrieval of a list offriends of a user of a client device 802, the retrieval of suchcollections, the retrieval of messages and content, the adding anddeletion of friends to a social graph, the location of friends within asocial graph, and opening an application event (e.g., relating to themessaging client application 804).

The application server 812 hosts a number of applications andsubsystems, including a messaging server application 814, an imageprocessing system 816 and a social network system 822. The messagingserver application 814 implements a number of message processingtechnologies and functions, particularly related to the aggregation andother processing of content (e.g., textual and multimedia content)included in messages received from multiple instances of the messagingclient application 804. As will be described in further detail, the textand media content from multiple sources may be aggregated intocollections of content (e.g., called stories or galleries). Thesecollections are then made available, by the messaging server application814, to the messaging client application 804. Other processor and memoryintensive processing of data may also be performed server-side by themessaging server application 814, in view of the hardware requirementsfor such processing.

The application server 812 also includes an image processing system 816that is dedicated to performing various image processing operations,typically with respect to images or video received within the payload ofa message at the messaging server application 814.

The social network system 822 supports various social networkingfunctions and services, and makes these functions and services availableto the messaging server application 814. To this end, the social networksystem 822 maintains and accesses an entity graph 304 within thedatabase 820. Examples of functions and services supported by the socialnetwork system 822 include the identification of other users of themessaging system 800 with which a particular user has relationships oris “following,” and also the identification of other entities andinterests of a particular user.

The application server 812 is communicatively coupled to a databaseserver 818, which facilitates access to a database 820 in which isstored data associated with messages processed by the messaging serverapplication 814.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram 900 illustrating architecture of software 902,which can be installed on any one or more of the devices describedabove. For example, in various embodiments, client devices 110, 120, 130and server systems 150 may be implemented using some or all of theelements of software 902 to enable ephemeral group chat and associatedcontent communications. FIG. 9 is merely a non-limiting example of asoftware architecture, and it will be appreciated that many otherarchitectures can be implemented to facilitate the functionalitydescribed herein. In various embodiments, the software 902 isimplemented by hardware such as machine 1100 of FIG. 11 that includesprocessors 1110, memory 1130, and input/output (I/O) components 1150. Inthis example architecture, the software 902 can be conceptualized as astack of layers where each layer may provide a particular functionality.For example, the software 902 includes layers such as an operatingsystem 904, libraries 906, frameworks 908, and applications 910.Operationally, the applications 910 invoke API calls 912 through thesoftware stack and receive messages 914 in response to the API calls912, consistent with some embodiments.

In various implementations, the operating system 904 manages hardwareresources and provides common services. The operating system 904includes, for example, a kernel 920, services 922, and drivers 924. Thekernel 920 acts as an abstraction layer between the hardware and theother software layers, consistent with some embodiments. For example,the kernel 920 provides memory management, processor management (e.g.,scheduling), component management, networking, and security settings,among other functionality. The services 922 can provide other commonservices for the other software layers. The drivers 924 are responsiblefor controlling or interfacing with the underlying hardware, accordingto some embodiments. For instance, the drivers 924 can include displaydrivers, camera drivers, BLUETOOTH® or BLUETOOTH® Low Energy drivers,flash memory drivers, serial communication drivers (e.g., UniversalSerial Bus (USB) drivers), WI-FI® drivers, audio drivers, powermanagement drivers, and so forth.

In some embodiments, the libraries 906 provide a low-level commoninfrastructure utilized by the applications 910. The libraries 906 caninclude system libraries 930 (e.g., C standard library) that can providefunctions such as memory allocation functions, string manipulationfunctions, mathematic functions, and the like. In addition, thelibraries 906 can include API libraries 932 such as media libraries(e.g., libraries to support presentation and manipulation of variousmedia formats such as Moving Picture Experts Group-4 (MPEG4), AdvancedVideo Coding (H.264 or AVC), Moving Picture Experts Group Layer-3 (MP3),Advanced Audio Coding (AAC), Adaptive Multi-Rate (AMR) audio codec,Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG or JPG), or Portable NetworkGraphics (PNG)), graphics libraries (e.g., an OpenGL framework used torender in two dimensions (2D) and three dimensions (3D) in a graphiccontent on a display), database libraries (e.g., SQLite to providevarious relational database functions), web libraries (e.g., WebKit toprovide web browsing functionality), and the like. The libraries 906 canalso include a wide variety of other libraries 934 to provide many otherAPIs to the applications 910.

The frameworks 908 provide a high-level common infrastructure that canbe utilized by the applications 910, according to some embodiments. Forexample, the frameworks 908 provide various graphic user interface (GUI)functions, high-level resource management, high-level location services,and so forth. The frameworks 908 can provide a broad spectrum of otherAPIs that can be utilized by the applications 910, some of which may bespecific to a particular operating system 904 or platform.

In an example embodiment, the applications 910 include a homeapplication 950, a contacts application 952, a browser application 954,a book reader application 956, a location application 958, a mediaapplication 960, a messaging application 962, a game application 964,and a broad assortment of other applications such as a third partyapplication 966. According to some embodiments, the applications 910 areprograms that execute functions defined in the programs. Variousprogramming languages can be employed to create one or more of theapplications 910, structured in a variety of manners, such asobject-oriented programming languages (e.g., Objective-C, Java, or C++)or procedural programming languages (e.g., C or assembly language). In aspecific example, the third party application 966 (e.g., an applicationdeveloped using the ANDROID™ or IOS™ software development kit (SDK) byan entity other than the vendor of the particular platform) may bemobile software running on a mobile operating system such as IOS™,ANDROID™, WINDOWS® Phone, or another mobile operating system. In thisexample, the third party application 966 can invoke the API calls 912provided by the operating system 904 to facilitate functionalitydescribed herein.

Some embodiments may particularly include a chat application 967. Incertain embodiments, this may be a stand-alone application that operatesto manage communications with a server system such as server system 150.A chat application 967 may include implementations for multiple userinterfaces, including a top level flow interface that presents cells fordifferent group chats and content communications, as well as systemsettings, individual group chat message flows, or any other interfacematerial, such as the example interfaces presented in FIGS. 2-6. Chatapplication 967 may also manage automatic deletion of chat messages andother content message information as defined by system operation forephemeral communications described above, where text messages in a groupchat are automatically deleted following viewing by all group users. Inother embodiments, this functionality may be integrated with anotherapplication such as a social media application 960 or another suchapplication. In some embodiments, chat application 967 may managecollection of content using a camera device of machine 1100,communication with a server system via I/O components 1150, and receiptand storage of received messages in memory 1130 as part of communicationof content messages. Presentation of messages and associated content maybe managed by chat application 967 using different frameworks 908,library 906 elements, or operating system 904 elements operating on amachine 1100.

FIG. 10 illustrates an example mobile device 1000 executing a mobileoperating system (e.g., IOS™, ANDROID™, WINDOWS® Phone, or other mobileoperating systems), consistent with some embodiments. Mobile device 1000may implement software architecture 902 in certain embodiments. In oneembodiment, the mobile device 1000 includes a touch screen operable toreceive tactile data from a user. FIG. 10 shows a display area 1002 thatmay be used for group chat, text messages, and other such content. Theuser may physically touch the mobile device 1000, and in response to thetouch, the mobile device 1000 may determine tactile data such as touchlocation, touch force, or gesture motion. In various exampleembodiments, the mobile device 1000 displays a home screen operable tolaunch applications 910 or otherwise manage various aspects of themobile device 1000. In some example embodiments, the home screenprovides status information such as battery life, connectivity, or otherhardware statuses. The user can activate user interface elements bytouching an area occupied by a respective user interface element. Inthis manner, the user interacts with the applications 910 of the mobiledevice 1000. For example, touching the area occupied by a particularicon included in the home screen causes launching of an application 910corresponding to the particular icon.

In certain embodiments, content may be presented within the touch screenof mobile device 1000 operating as a client device 110, 120, and a touchinput may be used to initiate a communication to a server system 150 aspart of a group chat.

Many varieties of applications 910 (also referred to as “apps”) can beexecuting on the mobile device 1000, such as native applications (e.g.,applications programmed in Objective-C, Swift, or another suitablelanguage running on IOS™, or applications 910 programmed in Java runningon ANDROID™), mobile web applications (e.g., applications 910 written inHypertext Markup Language-5 (HTML5)), or hybrid applications (e.g., anative shell application 910 that launches an HTML5 session). Forexample, the mobile device 1000 includes a messaging app, an audiorecording app, a camera app, a book reader app, a media app, a fitnessapp, a file management app, a location app, a browser app, a settingsapp, a contacts app, a telephone call app, or other apps (e.g., gamingapps, social networking apps, biometric monitoring apps). In anotherexample, the mobile device 1000 includes a social messaging app such asSNAPCHAT® that, consistent with some embodiments, allows users to sendpublic content to a server system 550, and to receive messages from theserver system 550. Such a SNAPCHAT application 910 may additionallyenable exchange of various ephemeral image and/or video content messagesin addition to group chat messages described herein.

FIG. 11 is a block diagram illustrating components of a machine 1100,according to some embodiments, able to read instructions from amachine-readable medium (e.g., a machine-readable storage medium) andperform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein.Specifically, FIG. 11 shows a diagrammatic representation of the machine1100 in the example form of a computer system, within which instructions1116 (e.g., software, a program, an application 910, an applet, an app,or other executable code) for causing the machine 1100 to perform anyone or more of the methodologies discussed herein can be executed. Inalternative embodiments, the machine 1100 operates as a standalonedevice or can be coupled (e.g., networked) to other machines. In anetworked deployment, the machine 1100 may operate in the capacity of aserver machine 550 or a client device 110, 120 in a server-clientnetwork environment, or as a peer machine in a peer-to-peer (ordistributed) network environment. The machine 1100 can comprise, but notbe limited to, a server computer, a client computer, a personal computer(PC), a tablet computer, a laptop computer, a netbook, a set-top box(STB), a personal digital assistant (PDA), an entertainment mediasystem, a cellular telephone, a smart phone, a mobile device 1000, awearable device (e.g., a smart watch), a smart home device (e.g., asmart appliance), other smart devices, a web appliance, a networkrouter, a network switch, a network bridge, or any machine capable ofexecuting the instructions 1116, sequentially or otherwise, that specifyactions to be taken by the machine 1100. Further, while only a singlemachine 1100 is illustrated, the term “machine” shall also be taken toinclude a collection of machines 1100 that individually or jointlyexecute the instructions 1116 to perform any one or more of themethodologies discussed herein.

In various embodiments, the machine 1100 comprises processors 1110,memory 1130, and I/O components 1150, which can be configured tocommunicate with each other via a bus 1102. In an example embodiment,the processors 1110 (e.g., a central processing unit (CPU), a reducedinstruction set computing (RISC) processor, a complex instruction setcomputing (CISC) processor, a graphics processing unit (GPU), a digitalsignal processor (DSP), an application specific integrated circuit(ASIC), a radio-frequency integrated circuit (RFIC), another processor,or any suitable combination thereof) include, for example, a processor1112 and a processor 1114 that may execute the instructions 1116. Theterm “processor” is intended to include multi-core processors 1110 thatmay comprise two or more independent processors 1112, 1114 (alsoreferred to as “cores”) that can execute instructions 1116contemporaneously. Although FIG. 11 shows multiple processors 1110, themachine 1100 may include a single processor 1110 with a single core, asingle processor 1110 with multiple cores (e.g., a multi-core processor1110), multiple processors 1112, 1114 with a single core, multipleprocessors 1110, 1112 with multiples cores, or any combination thereof.

The memory 1130 comprises a main memory 1132, a static memory 1134, anda storage unit 1136 accessible to the processors 1110 via the bus 1102,according to some embodiments. The storage unit 1136 can include amachine-readable medium 1138 on which are stored the instructions 1116embodying any one or more of the methodologies or functions describedherein. The instructions 1116 can also reside, completely or at leastpartially, within the main memory 1132, within the static memory 1134,within at least one of the processors 1110 (e.g., within the processor'scache memory), or any suitable combination thereof, during executionthereof by the machine 1100. Accordingly, in various embodiments, themain memory 1132, the static memory 1134, and the processors 1110 areconsidered machine-readable media 1138.

As used herein, the term “memory” refers to a machine-readable medium1138 able to store data temporarily or permanently and may be taken toinclude, but not be limited to, random-access memory (RAM), read-onlymemory (ROM), buffer memory, flash memory, and cache memory. While themachine-readable medium 1138 is shown, in an example embodiment, to be asingle medium, the term “machine-readable medium” should be taken toinclude a single medium or multiple media (e.g., a centralized ordistributed database, or associated caches and servers) able to storethe instructions 1116. The term “machine-readable medium” shall also betaken to include any medium, or combination of multiple media, that iscapable of storing instructions (e.g., instructions 1116) for executionby a machine (e.g., machine 1100), such that the instructions 1116, whenexecuted by one or more processors of the machine 1100 (e.g., processors1110), cause the machine 1100 to perform any one or more of themethodologies described herein. Accordingly, a “machine-readable medium”refers to a single storage apparatus or device, as well as “cloud-based”storage systems or storage networks that include multiple storageapparatus or devices. The term “machine-readable medium” shallaccordingly be taken to include, but not be limited to, one or more datarepositories in the form of a solid-state memory (e.g., flash memory),an optical medium, a magnetic medium, other non-volatile memory (e.g.,erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM)), or any suitablecombination thereof. The term “machine-readable medium” specificallyexcludes non-statutory signals per se.

The I/O components 1150 include a wide variety of components to receiveinput, provide output, produce output, transmit information, exchangeinformation, capture measurements, and so on. In general, it will beappreciated that the I/O components 1150 can include many othercomponents that are not shown in FIG. 11. The I/O components 1150 aregrouped according to functionality merely for simplifying the followingdiscussion, and the grouping is in no way limiting. In various exampleembodiments, the I/O components 1150 include output components 1152 andinput components 1154. The output components 1152 include visualcomponents (e.g., a display such as a plasma display panel (PDP), alight emitting diode (LED) display, a liquid crystal display (LCD), aprojector, or a cathode ray tube (CRT)), acoustic components (e.g.,speakers), haptic components (e.g., a vibratory motor), other signalgenerators, and so forth. The input components 1154 include alphanumericinput components (e.g., a keyboard, a touch screen configured to receivealphanumeric input, a photo-optical keyboard, or other alphanumericinput components), point-based input components (e.g., a mouse, atouchpad, a trackball, a joystick, a motion sensor, or other pointinginstruments), tactile input components (e.g., a physical button, a touchscreen that provides location and force of touches or touch gestures, orother tactile input components), audio input components (e.g., amicrophone), and the like.

In some further example embodiments, the I/O components 1150 includebiometric components 1156, motion components 1158, environmentalcomponents 1160, or position components 1162, among a wide array ofother components. For example, the biometric components 1156 includecomponents to detect expressions (e.g., hand expressions, facialexpressions, vocal expressions, body gestures, or eye tracking), measurebiosignals (e.g., blood pressure, heart rate, body temperature,perspiration, or brain waves), identify a person (e.g., voiceidentification, retinal identification, facial identification,fingerprint identification, or electroencephalogram basedidentification), and the like. The motion components 1158 includeacceleration sensor components (e.g., accelerometer), gravitation sensorcomponents, rotation sensor components (e.g., gyroscope), and so forth.The environmental components 1160 include, for example, illuminationsensor components (e.g., photometer), temperature sensor components(e.g., one or more thermometers that detect ambient temperature),humidity sensor components, pressure sensor components (e.g.,barometer), acoustic sensor components (e.g., one or more microphonesthat detect background noise), proximity sensor components (e.g.,infrared sensors that detect nearby objects), gas sensor components(e.g., machine olfaction detection sensors, gas detection sensors todetect concentrations of hazardous gases for safety or to measurepollutants in the atmosphere), or other components that may provideindications, measurements, or signals corresponding to a surroundingphysical environment. The position components 1162 include locationsensor components (e.g., a Global Positioning System (GPS) receivercomponent), altitude sensor components (e.g., altimeters or barometersthat detect air pressure from which altitude may be derived),orientation sensor components (e.g., magnetometers), and the like.

Communication can be implemented using a wide variety of technologies.The I/O components 1150 may include communication components 1164operable to couple the machine 1100 to a network 1180 or devices 1170via a coupling 1182 and a coupling 1172, respectively. For example, thecommunication components 1164 include a network interface component oranother suitable device to interface with the network 1180. In furtherexamples, communication components 1164 include wired communicationcomponents, wireless communication components, cellular communicationcomponents, near field communication (NFC) components, BLUETOOTH®components (e.g., BLUETOOTH® Low Energy), WI-FI® components, and othercommunication components to provide communication via other modalities.The devices 1170 may be another machine 1100 or any of a wide variety ofperipheral devices (e.g., a peripheral device coupled via a USB).

Moreover, in some embodiments, the communication components 1164 detectidentifiers or include components operable to detect identifiers. Forexample, the communication components 1164 include radio frequencyidentification (RFID) tag reader components, NFC smart tag detectioncomponents, optical reader components (e.g., an optical sensor to detecta one-dimensional bar codes such as a Universal Product Code (UPC) barcode, multi-dimensional bar codes such as a Quick Response (QR) code,Aztec Code, Data Matrix, Dataglyph, MaxiCode, PDF417, Ultra Code,Uniform Commercial Code Reduced Space Symbology (UCC RSS)-2D bar codes,and other optical codes), acoustic detection components (e.g.,microphones to identify tagged audio signals), or any suitablecombination thereof. In addition, a variety of information can bederived via the communication components 1164, such as location viaInternet Protocol (IP) geo-location, location via WI-FI® signaltriangulation, location via detecting a BLUETOOTH® or NFC beacon signalthat may indicate a particular location, and so forth.

Transmission Medium

In various example embodiments, one or more portions of the network 1180can be an ad hoc network, an intranet, an extranet, a virtual privatenetwork (VPN), a local area network (LAN), a wireless LAN (WLAN), a widearea network (WAN), a wireless WAN (WWAN), a metropolitan area network(MAN), the Internet, a portion of the Internet, a portion of the publicswitched telephone network (PSTN), a plain old telephone service (POTS)network, a cellular telephone network, a wireless network, a WI-FI®network, another type of network, or a combination of two or more suchnetworks. For example, the network 1180 or a portion of the network 1180may include a wireless or cellular network, and the coupling 1182 may bea Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) connection, a Global System forMobile communications (GSM) connection, or another type of cellular orwireless coupling. In this example, the coupling 1182 can implement anyof a variety of types of data transfer technology, such as SingleCarrier Radio Transmission Technology (IxRTT), Evolution-Data Optimized(EVDO) technology, General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) technology,Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE) technology, thirdGeneration Partnership Project (3GPP) including 3G, fourth generationwireless (4G) networks, Universal Mobile Telecommunications System(UMTS), High Speed Packet Access (HSPA), Worldwide Interoperability forMicrowave Access (WiMAX), Long Term Evolution (LTE) standard, othersdefined by various standard-setting organizations, other long rangeprotocols, or other data transfer technology.

In example embodiments, the instructions 1116 are transmitted orreceived over the network 1180 using a transmission medium via a networkinterface device (e.g., a network interface component included in thecommunication components 1164) and utilizing any one of a number ofwell-known transfer protocols (e.g., Hypertext Transfer Protocol(HTTP)). Similarly, in other example embodiments, the instructions 1116are transmitted or received using a transmission medium via the coupling1172 (e.g., a peer-to-peer coupling) to the devices 1170. The term“transmission medium” shall be taken to include any intangible mediumthat is capable of storing, encoding, or carrying the instructions 1116for execution by the machine 1100, and includes digital or analogcommunications signals or other intangible media to facilitatecommunication of such software.

Furthermore, the machine-readable medium 1138 is non-transitory (inother words, not having any transitory signals) in that it does notembody a propagating signal. However, labeling the machine-readablemedium 1138 “non-transitory” should not be construed to mean that themedium is incapable of movement; the medium 1138 should be considered asbeing transportable from one physical location to another. Additionally,since the machine-readable medium 1138 is tangible, the medium 1138 maybe considered to be a machine-readable device.

“CLIENT DEVICE” in this context refers to any machine that interfaces toa communications network to obtain resources from one or more serversystems or other client devices. A client device may be, but is notlimited to, a mobile phone, desktop computer, laptop, PDAs, smartphones, tablets, ultra books, netbooks, laptops, multi-processorsystems, microprocessor-based or programmable consumer electronics, gameconsoles, set-top boxes, or any other communication device that a usermay use to access a network.

“COMMUNICATIONS NETWORK” in this context refers to one or more portionsof a network that may be an ad hoc network, an intranet, an extranet, aVPN, a LAN, a WLAN, a WAN, a WWAN, a MAN, the Internet, a portion of theInternet, a portion of the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), aplain old telephone service (POTS) network, a cellular telephonenetwork, a wireless network, a Wi-Fi® network, another type of network,or a combination of two or more such networks. For example, a network ora portion of a network may include a wireless or cellular network andthe coupling may be a CDMA connection, a GSM connection, or other typeof cellular or wireless coupling. In this example, the coupling mayimplement any of a variety of types of data transfer technology, such as1×RTT, EVDO technology, GPRS technology, EDGE technology, 3GPP including3G, 4G networks, UMTS, HSPA, WiMAX, LTE standard, others defined byvarious standard setting organizations, other long range protocols, orother data transfer technology.

“EMPHEMERAL MESSAGE” in this context refers to a message that isaccessible for a time-limited duration. An ephemeral message may be atext, an image, a video, and the like. The access time for the ephemeralmessage may be set by the message sender. Alternatively, the access timemay be a default setting or a setting specified by the recipient.Regardless of the setting technique, the message is transitory.

“MACHINE-READABLE MEDIUM” in this context refers to a component, deviceor other tangible media able to store instructions and data temporarilyor permanently and may include, but is not be limited to, RAM, ROM,buffer memory, flash memory, optical media, magnetic media, cachememory, other types of storage (e.g., Erasable Programmable Read-OnlyMemory (EEPROM)) and/or any suitable combination thereof. The term“machine-readable medium” should be taken to include a single medium ormultiple media (e.g., a centralized or distributed database, orassociated caches and servers) able to store instructions. The term“machine-readable medium” shall also be taken to include any medium, orcombination of multiple media, that is capable of storing instructions(e.g., code) for execution by a machine, such that the instructions,when executed by one or more processors of the machine, cause themachine to perform any one or more of the methodologies describedherein. Accordingly, a “machine-readable medium” refers to a singlestorage apparatus or device, as well as “cloud-based” storage systems orstorage networks that include multiple storage apparatus or devices. Theterm “machine-readable medium” excludes signals per se, and may thusrefer to non-transitory media.

“COMPONENT” in this context refers to a device, physical entity, orlogic having boundaries defined by function or subroutine calls, branchpoints, APIs, or other technologies that provide for the partitioning ormodularization of particular processing or control functions. Componentsmay be combined via their interfaces with other components to carry outa machine process. A component may be a packaged functional hardwareunit designed for use with other components and a part of a program thatusually performs a particular function of related functions. Componentsmay constitute either software components (e.g., code embodied on amachine-readable medium) or hardware components. A “hardware component”is a tangible unit capable of performing certain operations and may beconfigured or arranged in a certain physical manner. In various exampleembodiments, one or more computer systems (e.g., a standalone computersystem, a client computer system, or a server computer system) or one ormore hardware components of a computer system (e.g., a processor or agroup of processors) may be configured by software (e.g., an applicationor application portion) as a hardware component that operates to performcertain operations as described herein. A hardware component may also beimplemented mechanically, electronically, or any suitable combinationthereof. For example, a hardware component may include dedicatedcircuitry or logic that is permanently configured to perform certainoperations. A hardware component may be a special-purpose processor,such as a Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) or an ApplicationSpecific Integrated Circuit (ASIC). A hardware component may alsoinclude programmable logic or circuitry that is temporarily configuredby software to perform certain operations. For example, a hardwarecomponent may include software executed by a general-purpose processoror other programmable processor. Once configured by such software,hardware components become specific machines (or specific components ofa machine) uniquely tailored to perform the configured functions and areno longer general-purpose processors. It will be appreciated that thedecision to implement a hardware component mechanically, in dedicatedand permanently configured circuitry, or in temporarily configuredcircuitry (e.g., configured by software) may be driven by cost and timeconsiderations. Accordingly, the phrase “hardware component” (or“hardware-implemented component”) should be understood to encompass atangible entity, be that an entity that is physically constructed,permanently configured (e.g., hardwired), or temporarily configured(e.g., programmed) to operate in a certain manner or to perform certainoperations described herein. Considering embodiments in which hardwarecomponents are temporarily configured (e.g., programmed), each of thehardware components need not be configured or instantiated at any oneinstance in time. For example, where a hardware component comprises ageneral-purpose processor configured by software to become aspecial-purpose processor, the general-purpose processor may beconfigured as respectively different special-purpose processors (e.g.,comprising different hardware components) at different times. Softwareaccordingly configures a particular processor or processors, forexample, to constitute a particular hardware component at one instanceof time and to constitute a different hardware component at a differentinstance of time. Hardware components can provide information to, andreceive information from, other hardware components. Accordingly, thedescribed hardware components may be regarded as being communicativelycoupled. Where multiple hardware components exist contemporaneously,communications may be achieved through signal transmission (e.g., overappropriate circuits and buses) between or among two or more of thehardware components. In embodiments in which multiple hardwarecomponents are configured or instantiated at different times,communications between such hardware components may be achieved, forexample, through the storage and retrieval of information in memorystructures to which the multiple hardware components have access. Forexample, one hardware component may perform an operation and store theoutput of that operation in a memory device to which it iscommunicatively coupled. A further hardware component may then, at alater time, access the memory device to retrieve and process the storedoutput. Hardware components may also initiate communications with inputor output devices, and can operate on a resource (e.g., a collection ofinformation). The various operations of example methods described hereinmay be performed, at least partially, by one or more processors that aretemporarily configured (e.g., by software) or permanently configured toperform the relevant operations. Whether temporarily or permanentlyconfigured, such processors may constitute processor-implementedcomponents that operate to perform one or more operations or functionsdescribed herein. As used herein, “processor-implemented component”refers to a hardware component implemented using one or more processors.Similarly, the methods described herein may be at least partiallyprocessor-implemented, with a particular processor or processors beingan example of hardware. For example, at least some of the operations ofa method may be performed by one or more processors orprocessor-implemented components. Moreover, the one or more processorsmay also operate to support performance of the relevant operations in a“cloud computing” environment or as a “software as a service” (SaaS).For example, at least some of the operations may be performed by a groupof computers (as examples of machines including processors), with theseoperations being accessible via a network (e.g., the Internet) and viaone or more appropriate interfaces (e.g., an API). The performance ofcertain of the operations may be distributed among the processors, notonly residing within a single machine, but deployed across a number ofmachines. In some example embodiments, the processors orprocessor-implemented components may be located in a single geographiclocation (e.g., within a home environment, an office environment, or aserver farm). In other example embodiments, the processors orprocessor-implemented components may be distributed across a number ofgeographic locations.

“PROCESSOR” in this context refers to any circuit or virtual circuit (aphysical circuit emulated by logic executing on an actual processor)that manipulates data values according to control signals (e.g.,“commands,” “op codes,” “machine code,” etc.) and which producescorresponding output signals that are applied to operate a machine. Aprocessor may, for example, be a Central Processing Unit (CPU), aReduced Instruction Set Computing (RISC) processor, a ComplexInstruction Set Computing (CISC) processor, a Graphics Processing Unit(GPU), a Digital Signal Processor (DSP), an ASIC, a Radio-FrequencyIntegrated Circuit (RFIC) or any combination thereof. A processor mayfurther be a multi-core processor having two or more independentprocessors (sometimes referred to as “cores”) that may executeinstructions contemporaneously.

“TIMESTAMP” in this context refers to a sequence of characters orencoded information identifying when a certain event occurred, (forexample, giving date and time of day, sometimes accurate to a smallfraction of a second). In some embodiments, a timestamp may be used aspart of a deletion criteria or as a deletion trigger to determine alength of time since a message was generated or sent, and which is usedfor deletion of an ephemeral message (e.g., deletion of content from theephemeral message from the communication system or client devices in thecommunication system.)

“DELETION TRIGGER” and “DELETION CRITERIA” refer to rules or statesthat, when identified by a device or aspect of a system, initiate thedeletion of ephemeral content (e.g., text, images, video, metadata,etc.). In some embodiments, deletion of a piece of ephemeral contentfrom an ephemeral message (e.g., a chat message) is associated withmultiple criteria or criteria that occur at multiple different devices.Similarly, in some embodiments, ephemeral content is associated withmultiple independent deletion triggers or criteria, such that adetermination that a state associated with deletion occurs for any ofthe possible independent basis for deletion may be used to delete theephemeral content, even while another state associated with deletion hasnot been met. In some embodiments, different ephemeral content may beassociated with different sets of deletion triggers (e.g. deletioncriteria). For example, a first ephemeral message may be associated withdeletion trigger A, a second ephemeral message may be associated withdeletion trigger B that is different than deletion trigger A, a thirdephemeral message may be associated with deletion trigger (A and B), anda fourth ephemeral message may be associated with two deletion triggers,such that A or B will trigger the deletion.

A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains materialthat is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has noobjection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent documentor the patent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and TrademarkOffice patent files or records, but otherwise reserves all copyrightrights whatsoever. The following notice applies to the software and dataas described below and in the drawings that form a part of thisdocument: Copyright 2016, SNAPCHAT, INC., All Rights Reserved.

The description that follows includes systems, methods, techniques,instruction sequences, and computing machine program products thatembody illustrative embodiments of the disclosure. In the followingdescription, for the purposes of explanation, numerous specific detailsare set forth in order to provide an understanding of variousembodiments of the inventive subject matter. It will be evident,however, to those skilled in the art, that embodiments of the inventivesubject matter may be practiced without these specific details. Ingeneral, well-known instruction instances, protocols, structures, andtechniques are not necessarily shown in detail.

Throughout this specification, plural instances may implementcomponents, operations, or structures described as a single instance.Although individual operations of one or more methods are illustratedand described as separate operations, one or more of the individualoperations may be performed concurrently, and nothing requires that theoperations be performed in the order illustrated. Structures andfunctionality presented as separate components in example configurationsmay be implemented as a combined structure or component. Similarly,structures and functionality presented as a single component may beimplemented as separate components. These and other variations,modifications, additions, and improvements fall within the scope of thesubject matter herein.

As used herein, the term “or” may be construed in either an inclusive orexclusive sense. Moreover, plural instances may be provided forresources, operations, or structures described herein as a singleinstance. Additionally, boundaries between various resources,operations, modules, engines, and data stores are somewhat arbitrary,and particular operations are illustrated in a context of specificillustrative configurations. Other allocations of functionality areenvisioned and may fall within a scope of various embodiments of thepresent disclosure. In general, structures and functionality presentedas separate resources in the example configurations may be implementedas a combined structure or resource. Similarly, structures andfunctionality presented as a single resource may be implemented asseparate resources. These and other variations, modifications,additions, and improvements fall within a scope of embodiments of thepresent disclosure as represented by the appended claims. Thespecification and drawings are, accordingly, to be regarded in anillustrative rather than a restrictive sense.

1. A method comprising: generating, at a server computer of a socialnetwork communication system, an association between at least three useraccounts as part of a first ephemeral group chat; receiving, from afirst client device associated with a first user account of the at leastthree user accounts, a first ephemeral chat message associated with oneor more deletion triggers; transmitting, from the server computer to asecond client device associated with a second user account of the atleast three user accounts and to a third client device associated with athird user account of the at least three user accounts, the firstephemeral message; and receiving, from at least the second clientdevice, chat monitoring information comprising first deletion triggerinformation.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein a first deletion triggercomprises each user account of the at least three user accounts beingassociated with display of the first ephemeral chat message for athreshold amount of time on a device corresponding to each user account.2. The method of claim 2, further comprising: receiving, from the thirdclient device, second chat monitoring information comprising seconddeletion trigger information, wherein the second deletion triggerinformation indicates that the ephemeral chat message has been displayedon a third screen of the third client device for at least the thresholdamount of time.
 4. The method of claim 3, further comprising: receiving,from the second client device, third chat monitoring informationcomprising third deletion trigger information, wherein the thirddeletion trigger information comprises a second display time valueindicating that the first ephemeral message has been displayed on asecond screen of the second client device for at least the thresholdamount of time; in response to the second deletion trigger informationand the third deletion trigger information, transmitting a deletioncommand to the second client device and the third client deviceindicating that the first deletion trigger has been met.
 5. The methodof claim 3, wherein the first deletion trigger information comprises adisplay value indicating that the first ephemeral message has beendisplayed on a second screen of the second client device for less thanthe threshold amount of time.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein a seconddeletion trigger comprises each user account of the at least three useraccounts being associated with display of the first ephemeral chatmessage for a threshold amount of time one any device corresponding toeach user account.
 7. The method of claim 1, wherein a third deletiontrigger comprises a threshold time since transmission of the firstephemeral message from the server computer.
 8. The method of claim 1,wherein a fourth deletion trigger comprises an independent thresholddisplay time for each client device associated with the at least threeuser accounts.
 9. The method of claim 1, wherein a fifth deletiontrigger comprises receipt of deletion messages from a threshold numberof devices associated with the at least three user accounts, wherein thedeletion messages are received in response to message delete inputsreceived at corresponding user interfaces of devices associated with theat least three user accounts.
 10. The method of claim 1, wherein thefirst ephemeral chat message is associated with at least two deletiontriggers; and wherein the chat monitoring information comprises presenceinformation and data associated with the at least two deletion triggers.11. The method of claim 1, wherein the association between the at leastthree user accounts is further based on a previous entity relationshipbetween the at least three user accounts and an ephemeral group chatcreation message from a device associated with a user account of the atleast three user accounts.
 12. The method of claim 11, furthercomprising: receiving the ephemeral group chat creation message at theserver computer; checking a list of user accounts identified in theephemeral group chat creation message against a set of user accountsassociated with active ephemeral group chat associations; andcommunicating a response to the ephemeral group chat creation message.13. The method of claim 11, further comprising: automatically selectinga color assigned to each user account associated with the firstephemeral group chat as part of generation of the association betweenthe at least three user accounts; verifying a user device connectionsfor at least a portion of the three or more user accounts;communicating, based on the user device connections, the color assignedto each user account as part of the response to the ephemeral group chatcreation message to corresponding devices identified by the user deviceconnections for the three or more user accounts.
 14. The method of claim1, further comprising: receiving, at the server computer, a plurality ofpresence communications associated with group chat activity, wherein thegroup chat activity is associated with the first deletion trigger; andtransmitting presence status updates to devices associated with thefirst group chat.
 15. The method of claim 14, further comprising:verifying, by the server computer, that a set of deletion criteria forthe first ephemeral message has been met based on the plurality ofpresence communications; and in response to verification that the set ofdeletion criteria for the first ephemeral message has been met,communicating a deletion command to devices of the at least three useraccounts.
 16. The method of claim 15, further comprising: communicating,from the server computer to the first client device, a verificationmessage indicating that the set of deletion criteria for the firstephemeral message sent by the first client device has been met; andreceiving, from the first client device, a deletion verification messageprior to communicating the deletion command.
 17. A device for ephemeralgroup chat comprising: memory; and one or more processors coupled to thememory and configured to: generate an association between at least threeuser accounts as part of a first ephemeral group chat; receive, from afirst client device associated with a first user account of the at leastthree user accounts, a first ephemeral chat message associated with oneor more deletion triggers; transmit, to a second client deviceassociated with a second user account of the at least three useraccounts and to a third client device associated with a third useraccount of the at least three user accounts, the first ephemeralmessage; and receive, from at least the second client device, chatmonitoring information comprising first deletion trigger information.18. The device of claim 17, wherein the first ephemeral chat message isassociated with at least two deletion triggers; wherein the chatmonitoring information comprises presence information and dataassociated with the at least two deletion triggers; and wherein the oneor more processors are further configured to verify that a set ofdeletion conditions associated with a first deletion trigger have beenmet based on the chat monitoring information, and to communicate adeletion command to devices associated with the at least three useraccounts in response to verifying that the set of deletion conditionshave been met.
 19. A non-transitory computer readable medium comprisinginstructions that, when executed by one or more processors of a device,cause the device to implement ephemeral group chat by configuring thedevice to: generate an association between at least three user accountsas part of a first ephemeral group chat; receive, from a first clientdevice associated with a first user account of the at least three useraccounts, a first ephemeral chat message associated with one or moredeletion triggers; transmit, to a second client device associated with asecond user account of the at least three user accounts and to a thirdclient device associated with a third user account of the at least threeuser accounts, the first ephemeral message; and receive, from at leastthe second client device, chat monitoring information comprising firstdeletion trigger information.
 20. The computer readable medium of claim19, wherein the instructions further configure the device to: receive,from the third client device, second chat monitoring informationcomprising second deletion trigger information, wherein the seconddeletion trigger information indicates that the ephemeral chat messagehas been displayed on a third screen of the third client device for atleast the threshold amount of time; and wherein a first deletion triggercomprises each user account of the at least three user accounts beingassociated with display of the first ephemeral chat message for athreshold amount of time on a device corresponding to each user account;receive, from the second client device, third chat monitoringinformation comprising third deletion trigger information, wherein thethird deletion trigger information comprises a second display time valueindicating that the first ephemeral message has been displayed on asecond screen of the second client device for at least the thresholdamount of time; and in response to the second deletion triggerinformation and the third deletion trigger information, transmit adeletion command to the second client device and the third client deviceindicating that the first deletion trigger has been met.